OF THE POLAR SEA. 273 
more blighted the resuscitating verdure, but a 
single day was sufficient to remove it. On the 
28th the Saskatchawan swept away the ice which 
had adhered to its banks, and the next day a 
boat came down from Carlton House with provi- 
sions. We received such accounts of the state 
of vegetation at that place, that Dr. Richardson 
determined to visit it, in order to collect botani- 
cal specimens, as the period at which the ice was 
expected to admit of the continuation of our jour- 
ney was still distant. Accordingly he embarked 
on the Ist of May. 
In the course of the ncaa the Go Braden 
wore away from the south side ofthe lake, but the — 
great mass of it still hung to the north side with 
some snow visible on its surface. By the 21st the 
elevated grounds were perfectly dry, and teeming 
with the fragrant offspring of the season. When . 
the snow melted, the earth was covered with the 
fallen leaves of the last year, and already it was 
green with the strawberry plant, and the bursting 
buds of the gooseberry, raspberry, and rose 
bushes, soon variegated by the rose and the 
blossoms of the choke cherry. The gifts of na- 
ture are disregarded and undervalued till they 
are withdrawn, and in the hideous regions of the 
Arctic Zone, she would make- a convert of him 
for whom the gardens of Europe had no Bias 
Vou. I. 
